Fishing with World Series winning Phillies
Shortstop Eric Bruntlett (continued)

As
we climbed the hill to Clear Lake the gas light came on in the truck and
proceeded to beep but as we got within the last 15 mile stretch the truck
started to shudder. “I think we have a problem guys,” Leo blurted as he eased
off the gas pedal. Running on fumes we decided that rather than take a chance at
the ramp we decided to pass the exit and hit a gas station first. After a hairy
twenty minutes we pulled into the station and let out a sigh of relief. “I was
getting worried for a minute there, was really holding my breath that last half
of a mile,” Leo exclaimed.

JIP
loses a nice fish at the boat

Fueled and ready to go we
arrived fashionably late at the launch 10 minutes later. Eric was already in the
water on his Skeeter and tied off to come and greet us. It was decided that
Zander would fish with Eric, and Cal and JIP would run in Leo’s Legend. Our
first stop was Rocky Point. As we made our way towards the point we had to rely
on electronics as a thick wet fog had settled on the lake, and we decided to
advance with caution, not to mention it felt absolutely glacial on the lake. As
we pulled up to the point we committed to fishing the spot until the fog burned
off.

At lunch Eric checks out some of
Cal's enthusiast rigs

Eric started working the
rocky point with a shakey head rig while Zander fished a Bass Patrol jig with a
twin tail grub trailer. Within the first ten minutes Eric boated a pair of two
pound largemouth while Zander hadn’t even received a bite. “I fish this spot a
lot,” Eric commented “these rocks hold a lot of fish.” “Is this your favorite
lake?” Zander asked. “It is, I come here a lot during the week when there are
less people out, and it is convenient since I live nearby in the Napa area,”
Eric responded as he set on third fish.

Eric checks his electronics for
structure

With the fish count three
to zero Eric turned around and said “I really have no choice but to learn how to
fish Clear Lake during winter. Once the season starts I really don’t get much
fishing in at all.” As it turns out Eric loves to fish so much that he will try
and get a day of fishing in now and again during the season but the strict
training regimen makes it difficult, and being part of a professional club on
the other side of the country leaves him without his boat or tackle on most
days.

Eric lands another fish on a
jerkbait

From the distance Zander
could make out the outline of Leo and the rest of the crew, and yelled out “how
many fish guys?” and heard back “the skunk is still on the boat!” As the fog
burned off Eric was proving to be quite a proficient angler and was schooling us
in the process.

With a limit of fish boated Zander
still has none

Once the dense blanket of
fog lifted we began to fish jerkbaits and Zander got two hits, neither of which
stuck. JIP got a hard strike and big fish leapt out of the water, but right as
Cal grabbed the net JIP’s jerkbait dislodged and came flying back to the boat,
he raised his hands up in the air and let out an exasperated sigh. “The fish are
not really committing, they are just swiping at the bait,” Zander yelled.